In the early 1800s, a wave of religious revival swept across the nation. New sects and new doctrines were brought to the people by travelling preachers in big tents. The movement was called the Great Awakening. Historians came to know it as The Second Great Awakening. But much like the First World War, the first Great Awakening was only known by that name after the second had come and gone.
Revival meetings led by Methodist and Baptist pastors became common in the South and the Middle West. That was followed quickly by nondenominational leaders of the Restoration Movement committed to their idea of a fundamental Old-Testament Christianity.
Church membership soared. This was especially true for the newer movements starting with the Methodists and Baptists and then expanding rapidly to brand new movements like the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Churches of Christ and Seventh Day Adventists. Most of the new converts were women and young people.
In western New York, so many movements swept over the district seeking and acquiring converts that the area became known as the burned-out district. There was no more kindling for the revivalists to ignite. One of the persistent ideas of the revival movements was the belief that the Second Coming of Jesus was near. This notion is sometimes called Post-Millennialism or Adventism, as in the Second Advent or Second Coming.
One of the more prominent new Adventist movements was led by a man named William Miller. They called themselves Millerites. William Miller rejected formal religion in his youth, but during the War of 1812, Miller found himself in a trench at the Battle of Plattsburgh in upstate New York. Miller recalled that “shrapnel shells fell around him like hailstones.”
One of the shells exploded killing and wounding everyone around him but leaving Miller unscathed. There are no atheists in foxholes. Miller decided he had been spared by God for a greater purpose. Without formal religious training, he began to study the Bible. He made a great discovery based on the Book of Daniel.
Miller determined that, using Daniel’s prophecies, he could pinpoint the date of the Christ’s triumphant return to Earth. That date was 2,300 years after the 457 B.C. decree of Artaxerxes I to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, or 1844.
Miller had a vast number of followers. The idea that Jesus would soon return was wildly popular at the time and remains popular today. It is said that on the appointed date, many Millerites in New York and New England went up into the hills to be closer to God when the heavens opened and Jesus descended.
The heavens did not open. Jesus did not return. The event, or non-event if you prefer, is known as The Great Disappointment. This disappointment did not end the Adventist movement but did end Miller’s part in it. The notion that Jesus’ return is imminent persisted and persists still. Historians recognize three to five Great Awakenings. If the fifth exists, we are living in it now.
